


an immortal love like no other

by lakeffectkid



Category: GOT7, JJ Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27013579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lakeffectkid/pseuds/lakeffectkid
Summary: "Every night after they were done, his future husband spirited away despite Jinyoung begging for him to stay, still getting nowhere in knowing who he even was as his lover denied his requests to hold Jinyoung for a moment."
Relationships: Im Jaebum | JB/Park Jinyoung
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	an immortal love like no other

**Author's Note:**

> the cupid and psyche au literally nobody but my self indulgent brain churned out, have at it. entirely based on the classical greco-roman story by apuleius
> 
> i would reccomend to read the original story too if you feel inclined, but some lines are taken directly from it! (yes my title sucks. I ran out of ideas, ok)

Jinyoung was one of three children, all of conspicuous beauty, born to the king. Jinyoung had two elder sisters that paled in comparison to his own visage; skin without a blemish to be seen and his eyes such a sight that people came from far and wide to look at Jinyoung's beauty for themselves. His sisters were charming and loved by many as well but his notoriety seemed to be the topic of conversation. Both men and women alike wanted him for his looks, asking his father for permission to even speak to him. It was tiring. 

"Please, one more visitor?" Jinyoung sighed. His looks were a curse, truly. He couldn't tolerate it anymore, throwing a dyed cloth dressing robe over his mirrors to obscure them. "I can't even stand to look at myself! Why would anyone want to subject themselves to me!" His name was paired with that of Venus, her own shrines more bare than usual for a goddess of her stature.

His mother begged through the wooden door just to appease the crowd outside. Of course this distracted many people from worshipping Venus and adorning her shrine with offerings. That would never do. Anything that made the goddess jealous was not to be tolerated.

The real Venus shook her head with envy, exclaimed with anger "Am I to be surpassed by a mortal? The palm of beauty was given to me over my rivals, Juno and Pallas, and a foolish mortal boy is meant to be more desired than I?" Venus summoned her son, Jaebeom, mischievous in his own ways, with her complaints. He was roused to take care of the issue by making the young prince fall in love with a monster, an ugly and unworthy being as punishment for daring to be more loved than Venus. Jaebeom was bound to follow his mother's orders, filling two vases from Venus' gardens- the bitter fountain and the balmy fountain. He took off to Jinyoung's chambers in his father's palace where he slept unknowingly to the trouble outside and remained invisible to the mortal eye. At the touch of the bitter water and a gentle prod of Jaebeom's arrow Jinyoung awoke. 

His thick lashes fluttered open, revealing soft brown eyes. They were round and hazy with sleep, lips parted just so in shock of the liquid touching his face. He slept with a bare torso, unmarked skin covered with a plain sheet. To Jaebeom's surprise he was touched with his own arrow and had to undo this mischief by dropping the balmy water on Jinyoung's hair. 

Now frowned upon by Venus, Jinyoung reaped no benefit from his physical charms. Thus his sisters had been married off now that nobody came forward to admire Jinyoung and the king and queen became worried they had incurred some wrath from the gods. Jinyoung had been isolated by the charms that once brought him attention had brought him misfortune. 

By the advice of the oracle of Apollo, Jinyoung was destined to be married off to no mortal lover. He was meant to wait on the top of a mountain and his spouse was a monster that neither gods nor man could resist. The king and queen had given in entirely, forlorn and filled with grief. "Why, my loving parents, do you lament me? When people called me a Venus it should have been met with complaint and not praise! I submit to my miserable fate that the oracle has given me."

And so it went, the young price moving in a procession more akin to a funeral than anything else. Jinyoung stood alone on the mountain while his family left with heavy souls and heavier guilt. Gentle tears ran down his face as he cursed his own existence; the winds of Zephyr picked him up and carried him far away into an unknown valley with fields and no more worries.

He awoke somewhere new, a soft kissing breeze on his cheek. He was rid of this curse, no more wrathful Venus, no more imprisonment by his charms. He was met by a golden palace and everything he may ever want; a library, a garden, fountains of many sizes and winds that carried endless conversations with Jinyoung. "All you see is yours, my lord, please retire to the bath when you feel ready and dinner will be provided at your word."

Artwork filled the walls, and stained glass work where there was not art. Jinyoung felt velveteen flower petals yet no thorns in this garden. 

The bath was hot and Jinyoung settled in with a content sigh. Wherever Zephyr had taken him, it was not like anything he had experienced before. Music followed him all around; when he sang it echoed back ten fold. 

He always came in the dark under the cover of night, an unknown being whose touch Jinyoung felt but his face he could not see. He felt broad shoulders and he, for once in his life, felt safe. He felt warmth and his future husband's touch lit a passion in his body he had never experienced before as a virgin until he was taken away by Zephyr. Every night after they were done, his future husband spirited away despite Jinyoung begging for him to stay, still getting nowhere in knowing who he even was as his lover denied his requests to hold Jinyoung for a moment. 

"Is this not good enough for you? Every night I lay with you is a sign of my devotion. What if you saw my real face, would you still love me or even fear me?" Jinyoung covered himself with a sheet for modesty in the darkness, not even a candle to illuminate the chamber. "Please love me as an equal rather than seeing me as a god."

"But I don't even know you. Who are you?" Jinyoung reached out, desperate for a sign of the other person's affection. He was placated with the only answer he would receive for some time yet once the night set in again, alone, Jinyoung felt worse off than he did before. He was trapped in a beautiful prison with everything he could ever want. He had never held a conversation with his betrothed, missed the warmth of his family and the familiarity of home. 

The gardens bloomed with any flower Jinyoung asked for, the winds spoke back to him when he talked, ephemeral servants at his call. He wore fine clothes with beautiful embroidery; the hems were framed with gold braid and feet clothed in sandals crafted by gods. He sighed in his gilded cage, reading any book he desired with no mirrors in sight to remind him of why he ended up here in the first place. Nothing pleased him anymore when he was alone despite the winds giving him nearly anything he asked for. He sighed, picking ripe fruit off a tree and looking unimpressed.

He bathed in floral scented water alone every evening, singing songs to himself that his mother learned from her mother, and so on. His betrothed would never know what his face looked like in the morning sunrise, how the curvature and dip of his waist was accentuated by tailored clothing that draped just above the knee. He would never know how round and soft Jinyoung's mouth was outside of the cover of darkness, and would never see the taught muscle of his legs. Jinyoung would never see him either - all he knew was the slight information he learned with their nightly encounters. Was being a mortal truly worth it if he were to spend the remainder of his life in a garden lined with thorns?

"I want to see my sisters." Jinyoung held onto his beloved's robes in the dark one night. The tears disappeared into the shadows. "If you can, please. I must see them at least once." His husband (at some point the status changed to husband, when it was Jinyoung knew not) gave in, painstakingly. 

So he summoned the winds of Zephyr and brought his sisters, now married off wealthy and happy by their own charms and looks, down to the valley where he was banished away from the mortal world. He felt alive once again, showing them the gardens where he rested, the palace with adorned columns and treasure everywhere. He was overjoyed to have family near once more, his own experiences to tell his sisters about his new life of luxury. 

The jealousy started to consume his sisters at how their youngest brother was not only cursed with looks to rival a goddess, but he was meant to be married off to a beast and was given a palace instead? It was beyond what their own husbands could provide for them. "What is he like?"

"Yes, he must be a good man if he provides this life for you." His sisters' envy was thick enough to cut with a blade. 

"He's a handsome young man, daresay beautiful." Jinyoung sighed dreamily, for he had never seen his husband's face or known his name. "But he is always away in the woods, hunting or something." 

"That can't be. You were destined to marry a monster, brother. The oracle said he could be a serpent or worse. The residents of the valley say so as truth." Was it true? Was the man who he made love with a dire beast? He was so tender and gentle with Jinyoung, it was impossible. "You must keep an oil lamp and a knife concealed away from your husband, and when it is night reveal his true form while he sleeps. If he is a monster like they say, cut off his head and regain your freedom." 

His sisters left but the intrusive thought did not. It persisted and when Jinyoung felt brave and had left the oil lamp by his bedside one night. He shined the light on his husband's face and it was not that of a monster - it was impossibly beautiful and his curiosity was nowhere near satisfied. Jinyoung wanted to caress the sharp angles of his cheekbones and his crescent eyes, closed in deep sleep. He had pale wings and they were covered in soft feathers. A drop of wax from the lamp had fallen onto his husband's face and he woke up in shock.

"Foolish boy, I betrayed my mother and married you. Your sisters poisoned your mind, forcing you to think I am a monster!" Jinyoung was stunned into silence, he had ruined it all. "Go be with your jealous sisters, I will punish you by leaving you forever." His husband flew off and left Jinyoung to be alone, weeping softly in the very field he started in. The gardens, palace, and musicians were gone. 

The voices and spirits that were once joyous turned spiteful to Jinyoung, and he wept harder. He wandered day and night without food in search of his love, remembering their tender moments together making love and feeling their fingers entwined under a blanket of darkness. Upon a mountain was a shrine and Jinyoung felt hopeful that his husband would be there. "Oh, my lord, be with me again soon!"

The pious Jinyoung traversed through tools of the harvest and scattered ears of corn and barley; they were tossed carelessly and Jinyoung pushed forward despite confusion. What did it all mean? Regardless, any kind of disarray meant Jinyoung must tidy it up and thus he did. None of the gods' symbols were meant to be disrespected like that. 

The temple belonged to Ceres, who took pity on the dutiful Jinyoung. Ceres advised Jinyoung to go to Venus. "Go, then, and voluntarily surrender yourself, and try by modesty and submission to win her forgiveness, and perhaps her favor will restore you the husband you have lost." So Jinyoung went, determined to regain his lost love. 

He found the temple of Venus, hunger wracking through his body, and he was received with anger instead of kindness. "Foolish boy, your husband is struck with illness because of you! My son lays sick while you curry poor favor with the gods." Venus was always portrayed as loving and beautiful, Jinyoung believed once, now that beauty was terrifying. Venus demanded he prove his loyalty and fidelity by sorting a great quantity of grains stored in her temple by evening.

Jinyoung focused despite despairing and feeling forlorn. Jinyoung did not move at all, missing his love. His husband with two beauty marks on his eye, his narrow eyes closed in sleep every time Jinyoung laid with him and the smell of peonies on his skin. He missed their golden palace where Jinyoung felt his presence in the air and gardens, where Jinyoung was valued for something besides his beauty that spurred this whole mess. From a far distance, Jaebeom, the dutiful husband, stirred up the ants in the field and gave Jinyoung assistance in this great task. 

Venus put Jinyoung to more tasks, not unlike Heracles and his own trials. He fetched golden fleece from stray sheep with the help of the river god speaking through the reeds. The river god gave her a box and it was meant for Proserpine - he was meant to go down there and ask her for a bit of her beauty to give to Venus. Was Jinyoung meant to die in the underworld? 

A voice from the tower Jinyoung was prepared to throw himself from asked him "Why, poor unlucky boy, do you design to put an end to your days in such a dreadful way?" It directed him towards a passage where he could bypass the misery of Pluto's realms and return with his life intact. The advice he must heed - once Proserpine lends her beauty and seals it in the box, it must remain shut. He obliged, grateful to retain his mortal soul.

Temptation behest Jinyoung and a small look into the box revealed it was not beauty sealed within - Jinyoung was tranced into a Stygian sleep and fell to the ground like a corpse lacking motion or a pulse. 

Jaebeom had recovered from his wounds and felt his dearest Jinyoung collapse; without alarming his jealous mother he slipped through a crack in the window and came to his side. Now he was free as well to touch Jinyoung in daylight instead of observing him from a distance. His full lips were tinted blue with death's touch, skin cool to touch, and chest rising and falling slowly as if he were leaving this world. He took the sleep out of Jinyoung's body and forced it back into the box, waking him with a touch of one of his arrows. "You almost perish from curiosity again, my beloved." 

Jaebeom swiftly flew up to Jupiter and asked for assistance. He spoke kindly to Venus and pleaded the case of the two lovers. Jaebeom, winged and wrapping Jinyoung's bare shoulders in their feathery presence, kissed his forehead amongst the presence of gods. "Drink this and become immortal, nor shall Jaebeom ever break away from the knot in which he is tied, but these bonds remain perpetual." 

Jinyoung sipped sweet ambrosia, a new warmth in his veins.


End file.
